Promise of Ward 11 rec center off not kept

A month before the 2005 election, then-Mayor Jane Campbell gave Councilman Mike Polensek and his North Collinwood neighborhood what they had wanted for years: a promise to build a recreation center in their community.

Two weeks later, Polensek endorsed Campbell, in part because she delivered on the center.

Lonnie Timmons III/The Plain DealerCleveland City Councilman Michael Polensek and then- Mayor Jane Campbell hug at City Hall on her first day as mayor.

Today, she is gone from office -- defeated by rival Frank Jackson -- and so is the promise of a new recreation center on Lake Shore Boulevard near Humphrey Field. Gone, too, is nearly $1 million in taxpayer money the city spent to buy a former Big Lots building to house the center.

Jackson last month announced a plan to build a $10 million rec center somewhere in Collinwood in 2010, but backed off the commitment to the Big Lots site and Polensek's neighborhood.

His chief of staff, Ken Silliman, said the mayor needs more time to evaluate the building to ensure it's the best place to build the center.

Polensek said a $112,000 architect's study paid for with taxpayer money already has found it suitable.

Mayor Frank Jackson

But Jackson said the new recreation center could be built at a yet undetermined site in South Collinwood in a neighborhood that Councilman Roosevelt Coats represents.

Coats supported Jackson in the 2005 election.

Polensek said he doesn't understand Jackson's decision to renege on the city's commitment to his neighborhood and reignite a decades-old battle between the two Collinwood councilmen on where the rec center should go.

"Ken insisted to me it wasn't political," Polensek said. "But that's not for me to decide. That's up to the citizens to decide."

Whatever the motive, Polensek said he's angry that the city has put the decision on hold, especially considering the $1 million public investment.

"Why would we waste taxpayers' money like that when we have the site already, and we have the building already?" Polensek said. "Someone's going to have to figure out what we're going to do with this building. It's a great building. But if we let it sit there and rot, someone's going to have to answer to that."

The building has been vacant for several years, Polensek said.

Silliman said the money and the building will not go to waste. He said if it doesn't become a recreation center, the city could sell it to a private developer. He said there are no interested parties at the moment.

That doesn't surprise Polensek. He said his neighborhood economic development group tried to sell the building. But developers, who consider the 66,000-square-foot building best suited for retail, told them the building is too small for big-box stores such as Wal-Mart or Target and too big for local retailers.

Besides, the city's own planners have the site earmarked for recreation. The mayor's five-year capital plan budgets $665,000 in 2010 for a bike trail from Humphrey to the lakefront.

"It's perfect for what we need," Polensek said, noting that the building sits adjacent to the 32-acre Humphrey Field filled with baseball fields and tennis and basketball courts.

Polensek also thinks there should be a measure of fairness about where the recreation center is placed.

A few years ago, he said, Campbell asked for his support for a $6 million football field that the city paid to build in Coats' neighborhood near Collinwood High School. Polensek said he agreed to back it as long as Campbell supported a recreation center in his neighborhood.

In 2005, during the final year of Campbell's term, Polensek said the city sought to acquire the Big Lots building through eminent domain -- a legal process in which the city acquires property for public use against a property owner's objection.

In court, the property owner agreed to sell it to the city for $900,000.

Early last year, shortly after Jackson took office, the city closed on the deal.

Polensek thought that meant the project was on track. But Jackson's decision last month left him deflated.

"Here we are right back to square one," Polensek said.

Coats said he didn't want to talk much about the contentious issue for fear he would be misrepresented.

He declined to name any possible sites for the center in his Ward 10 neighborhood.

But he said he's happy the mayor is putting money toward a recreation center in the northeastern part of the city.

"Finally, after years of discussion, we have the money to build a facility in Ward 10," Coats said.

Polensek represents Ward 11.

Later, Coats corrected himself and said, "Whether it's going to be in Ward 10 or Ward 11, finally we have the money to do it."